Category: Bluegrass Songwriting News

Milan Miller started learning guitar around the age of five. Guitar is his primary instrument, but he also plays the mandolin, bass, piano, and “just enough banjo and Dobro to get myself into trouble.” Miller’s song catalog includes such Balsam Range staples as Calloway County […]

Cloud of Dust was written John Cloyd Miller, the vocalist, mandolin and guitar player for Red June, a trio hailing from Asheville, North Carolina. Miller is a versatile singer/songwriter, the winner, with Cloud of Dust, of the 2013 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest staged at MerleFest. […]

Dave Carroll was born August 7, 1964, in Ashland, Kentucky. Although Carroll was always fascinated with music, he didn’t learn to play guitar until he was 17 years old. Carroll was motivated to learn to play bluegrass guitar when he attended a bluegrass concert in […]

Tennessee’s two U.S. senators and a third who has cashed some songwriting royalty checks said Monday that songwriters deserve a raise. But they’re not likely to get one any time soon. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) made the pitch […]

At this past weekend’s MerleFest, winners were chosen in the 22nd Annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. The invitational competition is held each year during the festival, with finalists chosen in advance. Congratulations to these 2014 winners: Bluegrass 1st Place – Paul Harrigill (Murfreesboro, TN) and […]

Joe Newberry was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and grew up in Boone County, Missouri. His songwriting has the same clean, elegant style that characterises his banjo playing. Musicians in the folk and bluegrass world often record his songs. The Gibson Brothers included two of […]

Finalists have been announced for the 2014 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest, held annually as a part of MerleFest. As is usually the case, a number of young bluegrass artists show up on the list. Paul Harrigill, banjo player with Flatt Lonesome, is nominated along with […]

On this Day …….. On November 7, 1958, Bill Clifton recorded Springhill Disaster, a song that he adapted from a poem written by a survivor, Maurice Ruddick. The Springhill disaster took place on Thursday, October 23, 1958. Actually there were three disasters in the different […]

Between sets on the Plattsburgh Bluegrass Festival’s big stage Saturday, September 14, Eric and Leigh Gibson stepped into a garage-like stall of Building 16 at the Clinton County Fairgrounds to give a songwriting workshop. The Gibsons — both graduates of SUNY Plattsburgh and natives of […]

Doc Watson Morning, D-18 Guitar Picking Kind of Day was written by Peter Rowan and Jerry Faires who, beginning the day after Doc Watson had passed away, collaborated on this sincere tribute to the great guitar player and singer. The song has seen significant radio […]

Last week we reran a column of mine about aggressive song-pitching, and I got this email: Hi Chris, I’m a songwriter who just moved to Nashville, and so far I can’t complain. I’ve gotten a song recorded by the bluegrass band Melon Rydge, and on […]

Driving home yesterday from the Bristol Bluegrass Spring Fest, I was struck by one overwhelming sentiment. What a joy it is to live in a world where Larry Sparks is a superstar. It may not be true everywhere, everytime – I’m sure Mr. Sparks can make it […]

No matter where you may live, it’s always good news when a new bluegrass event launches, just as it feels like the loss of a friend when one closes down. Here in Bristol, Virginia this weekend, we’re watching the first iteration of a new festival, the […]

How often do we discover bright young talent in family bands? The dynamic seems to entice and encourage the growth of budding pickers, who often develop rapidly in this supportive environment. It seems we never lack for examples, and here’s another. The Snyder Family has […]

Adkins & Loudermilk hit with a bang when they announced their partnership back in November of 2013, with reverberations sounding across bluegrass music. Edgar Loudermilk left his position on bass and harmony vocals with IIIrd Tyme Out, and Dave Adkins dissolved his own band to […]

On this day… On March 30, 1935, Paul Williams was born in Wytheville, Virginia. He was raised in eastern Tennessee. “Williams” was actually the stage name for Paul McCoy Humphrey. It was the name that he adopted when he joined the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in […]

Keith Little, much acclaimed singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer who has recorded and toured with the likes of Rose Maddox, California bluegrass pioneer Vern Williams, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The Chieftains, David Grisman and Peter Rowan, has graduated to leading his own […]

With this profile of Frank Solivan we welcome Brian Paul Swenk to our roster of writers here at Bluegrass Today. Brian is a banjo player and bluegrass nut in Richmond, VA who performs with Big Daddy Love, a multi-genre touring group based in Winston-Salem, NC. Bluegrass music, like […]

Tim O’Brien, apparently, never sits still. But Bluegrass Today was fortunate to catch up with him twice in recent days, once over the weekend before his solo set at the DC Bluegrass Union festival in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and on the phone a few […]

Being a bluegrass fan can be a curious thing. Some folks are born into it, listening to mom and dad play Flatt & Scruggs before they’re even out of the hospital. Others sort of just fall into it – perhaps they heard it on the radio, […]

It’s hard to keep a good man down in bluegrass music (although we all do like to be lonesome now and then), and radio broadcaster Larry Roberts is a prime example of that. Roberts has been a DJ for almost thirty years, and for the […]

Bluegrass is sometimes viewed as music for old fogies. The emphasis on tradition, the lack of electric instruments, the sheer lonesomeness of it all – it’s not Katy Perry or Justin Beiber, that’s for sure. In the past several years, however, it seems like more […]